By Rachel Lippmann, St. Louis Public Radio
St. Louis – The city of St. Louis has ended a six-month experiment with longer enforcement hours for parking meters in Grand Center
In April, the city began enforcing the meters in the arts district, which is bounded roughly by Lindell Blvd. on the south, Vandeventer Ave. to the west, Bell Ave. to the north, and on the east by Compton Ave., until 10 p.m. Meters in the rest of the city needed to be fed until 7 p.m.
Starting Monday, Grand Center meter enforcement will again last until 7 p.m. only.
The extended hours was supposed to be a pilot project, said Vince Schoemehl, the president and chief executive officer of Grand Center Inc.
"Given the fact that there's not going to be any other districts in the city extend the hours to 10 p.m. and given the fact that we can't afford the technology, we were inconveniencing too many patrons," Schoemehl said. The city had intended to install kiosks that would allow drivers to pay with credit cards.
The reaction, he said, was uniformly negative.
"What we found, though, was that the biggest complaint was the requirement to carry that many quarters," he said.
Revenue from the extended hours were intended for a special fund that would have funded infrastructure and parking improvements in Grand Center, Schoemehl said. He was not sure how much had been generated in the six months of 10 p.m. enforcement.
He said there is no intention of removing meters that have a 90-minute limit, which are meant for diners at Grand Center restaurants.
"We have a valet parking program for diners, we're going to continue that and see if there's some way to expand it with participation of the restaurants. And we're going to look at some other ways, a validation program and whatnot that we might be able to do to help restaurants in the district," Schoemehl said.